


After Kate Leaves

by Hamimifk (BatchSan)



Category: Bomb Girls
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism (Implied), Angst, Community: femslash12, Drama, F/F, Femslash, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Physical Abuse (off-screen), Pregnancy, Romance, Sad feelz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-02
Updated: 2012-12-02
Packaged: 2017-11-20 02:08:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/580114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BatchSan/pseuds/Hamimifk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Betty's life after Kate leaves does not go on easily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After Kate Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Zarabithia](http://zarabithia.livejournal.com) for [Femslash12](http://femslash12.livejournal.com).

Three months pass after Kate leaves.

Betty picks up a bottle of alcohol and refuses to put it down until it's empty and she's vomiting it all into the toilet, plus the little breakfast she had had that morning. She goes to sleep without changing her clothes, hugging the empty bottle.

Four months pass after Kate leaves.

Looking small, Gladys comes into work one morning and tells the other girls she'll have to be leaving soon. The doctor says she's four months pregnant, which explains why her coveralls have become tight around her waistline in the last two months. She hugs Betty extra tight and promises that they won't stop being friends and hopefully she'll be able to come back to work one day.

Six months pass after Kate leaves.

Gladys barges into Betty's little room and falls into her arms, inconsolable through her sobs and tears. There's a telegram clenched in a death grip that she keeps clutched to her chest as Betty strokes her back. In not so many words, it says James didn't see his shooter until it was too late. 

He doesn't make it home.

Eight months pass after Kate leaves.

Glass erupts on the floor as an empty bottle of alcohol falls to the floor. It's ignored as Betty pushes away from the table that it had been sitting on, pushing Gladys gently backward toward the bed. They don't say anything about the baby bump between them as lips devour lips, seeking warmth and hope where they can't find any in life anymore.

Gladys doesn't say to stop even though she's never kissed a woman before and Betty is grateful because she doubts she would've been able to.

Ten months pass after Kate leaves.

A knock on the door causes Gladys to look up at her visitor. Betty stands in the threshold to the other woman's bedroom with a shy smile on her lips. It strikes Gladys as uncharacteristic and far too sad on her friend's face, but she returns her a cheery smile and waves her in. Betty pauses before sitting beside Gladys on the bed and placing a careful hand on the baby's head. Her wrist brushes against the new mother's arm where she has the baby cradled in her arms. 

They've come to a point where they don't need words much to get across what they want to say but there's something that needs to be voiced.

"I need you," Betty says and holds her breath.

"It's not so simple."

"No, I know. I still want to try."

Gladys pauses, studying the line of Betty's hand against her newborn's head. "Are you sure?"

"I'll stop drinking and I'll get a second job. I'm so sure, Gladys. I need you."

She doesn't say the rest of what she's thinking, and it doesn't need to be said because Gladys is one of the smartest women she's ever known. A soft smile lifts at the corner of the other woman's mouth despite the unspoken words.

"Okay."

_I need you to fill the hole in my heart._

Fifteen months pass after Kate leaves.

The baby is sleeping in the next room so they're trying to be as silent as possible but it's only with little success.

Gladys cries out against Betty's naked shoulder, her arms wrapped around the other woman's shoulders, nails drawing blood where they're embedded against flesh. If Betty feels the pain, she doesn't say anything, though she groaned when the nails first bit in. With a hand clutching dark brown hair, Betty uses the leverage to expose her lover's throat and bites down against the soft skin, teeth grazing a pulse point. The shudder beneath her lips becomes a violent shiver as she curls three fingers inside the other woman, Gladys crying out.

"I wanna hear you," Betty breathes against bitten skin, her breath tickling. "I want to hear my name falling from your lips as I fuck you."

Gladys shivers against the sound of her voice, feeling it shoot straight down her body to meet where fingers are pounding into her. The curled knuckles repeatedly hit her in the right spot and she's quaking and shivering and wanton as she feels herself begin to come apart.

"Betty..." she gasps. A thumb flicks against her clit and she moans louder even though she clenches her jaw for a moment afterward to make sure the baby is still sleeping. When teeth bite into her shoulder, though, she forgets to keep silent. "Betty!"

As she unravels and falls apart in Betty's arms, the sound of crying ftom the next room starts. Closing her eyes for a second she bumps her forehead against Betty's, whom laughs.

"Sorry. I'll take care of her."

Carefully depositing Gladys onto the bed, Betty wipes her hand on the slip she's still wearing and pulls a robe on. In the next room, she picks up a crying baby and coddles her against her bosom, a hand gently stroking dark curls. She breathes in the scent of baby powder and still new baby that's now beginning to dissipate more and more with each new day the baby grows. Betty feels warmth in her heart. Not too long after, she replaces the now sleeping baby back into it's crib and tucks the blanket up to a small chin.

"Goodnight, princess."

Gladys is asleep when she returns, the blanket covering her naked form. Ridding herself of both robe and slip, Betty slides into bed beside the other woman and snuggles against her back. She breathes in the scent of sweat mixed lightly with Gladys expensive soaps and perfumes, closing her eyes contently.

Eighteen months after Kate leaves.

Betty gets a letter in the mail addressed to her from a Marion.

Her hands tremble as she opens it, feeling sick to her stomach and excited all at once.

Her mother finally died. Her father almost drowned her, twice.

Betty can read through the lines. She can see where Kate adds that there's new scars etched into her flesh and where she says she's misses her and can't take another moment of this (even though none of those words are really there). She reads the letter five times before her shaking hands rip the paper to shreds and then she burns those shreds, but not the envelope. 

She takes a long shower and is glad Gladys is out with the baby. When she comes out, she writes back to Kate, reluctantly writing Marion on the envelope. She only says one thing.

_Come home._

Nineteen months after Kate leaves.

Kate comes back.

Betty hugs her so tight that Kate has to remind her that she needs air to breathe and even then, she only lets her go slightly. They spend the night at a bar, catching up; apologizing. At the end of the night, Kate warily kisses her cheek, explaining it's only a friendly gesture before retreating into the night.

When Betty goes home to Gladys, she invites her to a shower and fucks her hard against the cold tiles with her fingers. She cries as she does so, keeping her face pressed against Gladys' throat and breasts.

Twenty-four months after Kate leaves.

Lips trail over scars - old ones, long since healed over, now sad pinks and faded lines, and new ones, still angry red in places, dark pink in others. Kate hisses as a tongue presses against one of the newer ones. She shivers and softly moans when light hands trace out the mismatched patterns before sliding forward to her breasts. She trembles at the touch, unused to such tenderness.

Betty moans against her back, turning her face to press a cheek against the crisscross of scars to look behind herself. She smiles at Gladys who only pauses for a moment to smile back. Her fingers move again, slamming into her with a practiced flick of the wrist. Watching the shake of her shoulders and breasts as she moves makes Betty moan again. With some effort, she forces herself to concentrate on the woman she's leaning against. Her hands move and her thumbs are gentle against pink peaks.

Kate cups her hands over Betty's, following her hands as they move. Betty shifts so she can press her lips to the other woman's shoulders, nibbling the skin teasingly. She bucks against Gladys' ministrations, feels her own thighs wet, and can only smile when Kate breaths a shudder as one hand (hands, including hers still pressed over Betty's) dips down over a flat stomach, past short, course curls, and between trembling thighs. She inhales the trembling woman in front of her and takes her time with her fingers even as her own breath becomes ragged and she bites a little harder than she means to on Kate's shoulder (not too hard though).

"Kate..." she murmurs against skin.

When Betty comes, Kate isn't far behind.

Twenty-five months after Kate leaves.

Kate presses her knuckles a little too hard against her lip, feeling her teeth bite into flesh. Other than the single nervous action, she's determined and smiles when the toddler waddles up to her with a small doll in her hands. The toddler looks up at her with eyes that are all her mother's and holds up an arm in the air for Kate's attention. Tenderly, Kate picks her up and sits her on her knee, forever nervous around the small child, but absolutely in love with her nonetheless.

"So it's decided then?" Gladys asks, setting her cup of tea onto the coffee table before them.

"Yes," Kate answers, smiling when the toddler offers her the doll. "If that's what you both really want."

"Of course it's what we want," Betty smiles and takes the doll from her hand so she can hold Kate's hand. "It's strange in some ways, but that's just life sometimes. It gets messy and then stacks itself back somewhat haphazardly, but stronger."

Gladys rests her hand over Betty's, her fingers grazing the underside of Kate's hand, nodding. The toddler, thinking it a game, places her small, chubby hand atop of the others with a giggle.

"We're modern women, anyway. We are here to break and rebuild boundaries the same way we do everyday at work. Could you imagine two years ago that we would have any kind of rights in the workplace? Now there's at least a dozen new regulations just to help ensure us equality and the freedom and the right to keep doing what we set out to do. This, this choice we're making right now, is just another step toward the future," Gladys says.

"It's still hard to just accept it so willingly. The bible... No. No, I need to stop relying so heavily on a book, but it's just going to take some time, maybe a lot, to accept all of... this."

"You have all the time in the world to get use to it. Don't even think of this as a relationship because by society's standards, three women in a lesbian relationship at the same time is just unheard of, obviously." Betty smiles. "But not impossible."

Tears slide down Kate's cheeks and she smiles and nods. "No, not impossible with a little faith."


End file.
